O2 Snaps Up iPhone

Those clever people at O2 in the UK land the iPhone

Hats off to O2 who are about to sign an exclusive agreement with Apple to market the iPhone in the UK. Expect the iPhone to be this year's must-have Xmas pressie.


Also, just wait for some ludicrous deals from the other network providers to lock you into their contracts for the rest of your lives!

No more 1984

On June 29th, Apple will introduce iPhone. And you'll see why 2007 won't be like 1984.

In just a few short hours from now, months of fevered anticipation will finally be delivered upon, as Apple Inc. & AT&T release the iPhone to retail. The theatrics will reach a peak in the US on Friday as AT&T stores close prematurely mid-afternoon only to reopen at 6pm into a whole new world of Apple's design.

Now as previously stated, I covet all things Apple - although I've donated surprisingly little to the Cupertino coffers of late. As a dedicated Treo owner with the capability of MP3 playback, I never felt the need for the addition of an iPod to carry around (though don't get me wrong, I still covet one!). I haven't held or touched (or even seen by direct line of sight) an iPhone yet, but I've absorbed enough of the device to know that I already think it's a beautifully engineered example of iconic Apple design, just as I've come to anticipate & expect of them. If the deafening crescendo of Friday's activities deliver as promised, then I believe that Apple might just have another hit on its hands. I know it's going to be costly, it's first generation, it's network-tied & all the rest, but iPod was pricey when it came late to market & that gizmo didn't suffer.

For Apple's sake, I hope it's as good as they'd have us believe. If they put a foot wrong, their inflated stock will fall through the floor & then where will us Apple fanboys be? Also, they've achieved such remarkable presence for the product prior to launch, they simply can't afford for much to go wrong, & I'm sure they've done everything humanly possible to ensure it doesn't. Anyone familiar with the 1984 backstory will know that Jobs is no stranger to the odd Richard Branson-style skin-of-the-teeth white-knuckle-ride (snappy huh?!), but this time he's had to play it straight with the big boys right from day one, and I'm certain AT&T will have kept Apple honest.

I really hope Jobs & co. have created a viable touch screen interface & keyboard that enables effortless real-world data character entry - if they have, hats off to them. When they can give themselves time, I really hope they'll address their insult to the OS X development community that is its support for 3rd party apps. 'so long as they're web-based', and then we might see the platform truly expand beyond the phone/iPod/browser/organiser/camera product it currently intends to be - we've waited long enough surely for Job's revision to the Newton?

So why, you may ask, won't 2007 be like 1984 for me?

Well, the answer is tied to the previous paragraph. iPhone is - to my mind at least - oh so desirable, but oh so limited in its intent. I'm past justifying my expectations, and I wouldn't want anyone to think I consider what I have as perfect (it certainly isn't), but my Treo 650 does so much more: It achieves the same result as iPhone - I make calls, listen to MP3s & could, should I wish to, enjoy an inferior movie experience, & at a push I can surf; not with any of the style of the iPhone, but I can't warrant $499 to do what I already do more elegantly. Treo syncs with my address book/iCal (& Entourage, & Outlook/Exchange on XP simultaneously); I access my office docs and PDFs; it serves as my TomTom Navigator 6 GPS platform; heck, it even controls my AV equipment at home. Sure, its camera might be a howler, but it's good enough that if I'm ever the sole witness to a Paris Hilton nervous breakdown (or chipped nail - same thing really), I'll get rich selling the reproduction rights. But critically, what my Treo also does is run the other 160+ applications (I just counted, and yes I'm ashamed of myself) that it holds; sure, hardly any of them are even remotely essential to my daily life, but they all go to making my Treo experience MY experience.

Apple make great computers & even some of the great software that runs on them, but they also encourage the development community to think outside the box. Way back, I first bought into OS X for its protected memory & the fact that suddenly just the applications died, not the whole computer. Don't sell me OS X on a phone 6 or 7 years later & tell me you left out protected memory & so won't support 3rd party applications!

Jobs never told me what I could & couldn't do with my Mac - he said 'think different'. I can accept his vision for how a single-purpose music player should be used. But don't expect to sell me on a 'smart' phone that can only function to one user's expectations - it all feels a bit - forgive me - 1984.

I'm sure my concerns will be addressed in due course, and it won't be long before I'm an iPhone owner. Looking back, while the Mac was the attention grabber of 1984 (with its lack of software, lest we forget), it was the LaserWriter that really changed computing history - without it, the Mac would never have won through; I'm sure that with the iPhone Apple have just focussed on what wins straight from the box & will encourage development for the platform in due course.

I'm in the UK, so all of this is somewhat academic. But I'll sure enjoy watching the circus state-side. I'll also be keeping a keen eye on Ed Colligan and co., hoping against hope that there might be the dawn of realisation of what it takes to at least 'appear' to be at the forefront of technology; as custodians of the Palm OS they've managed a most unsightly decline - its time they look into the eyes of 2007's marketplace and decide once and for all if they've the stomach for the fight.

If not, Palm should just sit back & watch how it's done properly.

Splash ID v4

Splash Data fail to impress with Version 4's initial release

It's out there & you can find out more by visiting the Splash Data website, but you won't read a review here just yet, as I'm staging a one man - well, more like one blog - protest at the fact there's no OS X desktop companion, just one for the Windoze crowd!

Fear not, as soon as they address this injustice I'll follow up on this much favoured application. Until then, Mac owners be warned, you won't be able to backup your handheld data. (I believe with new formats, syncing with an older desktop version will fail).

On being difficult...

Confused+Emotional.

I think it important that the reader gets a fairly accurate handle on what they're dealing with here - it's only fair.

Maybe it was something to do with the configuration of planets at my hour of birth, or the misuse of forceps at that time, but it seems to be my role in life to buck trends and struggle to be different. What do I mean? Well, my obsession with gadgets is a perfect example...

Back when I had to book my school's sole computer in 15 minute blocks to perfect my Commodore Basic programming (it could say 'hello' on the screen and everything!), the techies here in the UK were playing with the BBC Micro; everyone else was busy swapping applications for their Sinclair Spectrums. So the decision was pretty easy really... I found myself with a Commodore Vic-20! Oh how my friends looked on jealously, when they weren't swapping the latest and greatest games with everyone else. Never mind that the Spectrum owners didn't have a need, I smugly spent £75 on a 16Kb (yes, Kb!) memory expansion pack for the Vic. I was flying! I could get a computer to say 'Hello' at home now.

To a fault, I'm diametrically opposed to all things Bill Gates and Windoze (SIC). I'm a huge, unashamed fan of Steve Jobs, Jonathon Ives and everything Apple. Yes, I also own a laptop running XP, but I do so despite everything I've ever believed in. I resent it; Windoze is something to scowl at from the other side of the room. I spend my time in Gatesville wishing I was on the Mac. With a creative music background, I was brought up on a diet of Apple, so I have an excuse. But come on, have you ever used a Macintosh? Why would you use anything else?! Well, to cooperate with the rest of the world, to enjoy the same experience as friends, family and loved ones, of course. Which is what I mean. I sit smugly knowing that I use the best Operating System, but watching jealously as everyone else enjoys their Windoze-only experience.

As an avid photographer, following the crowd by going Canon or Nikon was never going to do for me, oh no. I was seduced by the use of little expansion cards for the range of Minolta SLRs (nevermind that these expensive little cards added functionality to my camera already built in to the other manufacturers' offerings, these were 'gadgets'!). So Minolta have gone to the wall, leaving me with expensive and obsolete equipment, while the competition have gone from strength to strength. Are you getting the picture yet?

Then there's the mobile phone nightmare. I thought I knew better than to carry around an industry standard mobile phone AND a PDA, so I went and combined the two. Rather than choose the industry standard Palm PDA, I chose a compatible device from a company called Handspring. Why? Erm, well... errr... Gadgets! See, the Handspring had a special socket connector called Springboard, enabling the owner to attach additional hardware... or gadgets, if you like. Having expanded the painfully poor built-in memory, I spent the best part of a year coveting a 'Visorphone', yes, a plug-in GSM phone module for my Visor. Eventually, I got one for 50% of the RRP at £100. Yes I know other mobile phones were free, this was a true gadget! Of course, it was 50% of the RRP because it was being obsoleted and, to be honest, didn't really work, but nevermind, this was a gadget! If you stood on one foot with your body at 45 degrees to the vertical, most likely hanging out of a window and uttering some strange incantation, it might hold a call for as long as, ooh, let's see, 30 seconds? Nobody learned to be so concise when making calls, and no matter, this was a gadget!

The next step was to watch Handspring be absorbed by Palm, and see the obsolescence of my beloved Springboard modules. I bought a Treo 600. It was really good - it held calls for at least twice as long as the Visorphone - a 100% improvement! Okay, whoever I was talking to had to contend to listening to me mixed in with the residual sound of the big bang - this was a new gadget! Within days its headphone output failed. Without Bluetooth, I decided a convoluted system of dongle plugged into the phone (yes, via the failed headphone socket) and a pathetic earpiece would do. Okay, it never did 'do', but it was a gadget. How good a system was it? Well, recently in a generous act, I tried to gift the earpiece to her in doors. Demonstrating the simple process of charging, the charger blew up on me! As the smoke billowed, would it have made a difference if I reminded everyone that this was a gadget?

Now, I have my beloved Treo 650. It actually works. It's probably cost me about £800 to get a Palm smartphone that actually works. No matter, think of all the lovely gadgets I've enjoyed. Having invested extensively in 3rd party applications, I'm very tied to the Palm platform - it's what I've known for almost the last 8 years. I'm jealously watching the emergence of the iPhone, but I know it won't do what I have come to expect of my pocket-pal. I'm not sure if the Palm does what I need it to do to make my life easier, or if my life has changed to do what the Palm finds easy, but no matter, we're a team now. Of course, Palm the company continues to demonstrate all the business sense of a dying company, and the signs are clear that I've backed the wrong horse in the Palm OS, as the company gets all cosy in Gatesville with the pocket PC Windoze Mobile OS. Bugger!

At least I've done well with my GPS choice. Here in the UK, TomTom rules (or 'Doris' as clan Confused+Emotional have dubbed 'her'). OK, what really rule are the dedicated TomTom PND hardware devices. I, being an individual, decided to integrate TomTom within my Palm Treo 650 - can you imagine what a gadget that baby has become? Okay, so I don't own TomTom hardware, which puts me in relation to the user experience just outside the room with my nose pressed against the window, looking in. No matter, TomTom supports PDAs. But wait, 98% of TomTom PDA users are based upon the dreaded Gatesville Pocket PC platform. So ok, my nose is no longer against the window looking in on the community; I'm on Venus. No matter, I have GADGETS!

There's more to share, but I'm now feeling a little embarrassed. But I just thought I should share with you where I'm coming from, just so you might understand a little better why I might sometimes sound a little hurt, a little offended, a little bitter, a little angry at the world. And of course, you might now understand why you're reading 'Confused+Emotional'.

That said, I do have some great gadgets!!

In need of inspiration and traffic

My good friend Murray runs a blog called Palm-Mac and is asking what he can blog about without repeating himself or the wider blogosphere. His page is well worth keeping an eye on, covering all things Macintosh, Palm, Windoze Mobile-based smartphones and anything else that gets up his nose. Go on, pay him a visit!
(That's Murray pictured above, by the way - I'm much too considerate to offend with my own mug!)